Food fraud incidents have been making headlines for the past couple of years. The potential health hazards it brings to consumers are unacceptable and make this intentional tampering with our food products a true criminal offence.

Subsequently, PwC research demonstrates that it not only damages the specific companys reputation but rather affects the whole industry that particular company operates in. It affects consumer trust in a structural manner and hence is above all a costly matter which reaches beyond individual company profits.

Government - stricter regulations and controls have been put in place such as the new Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) in the USA and the Chinese Food Safety Law.

Industry - development of the food fraud vulnerability assessment tool by PwC and SSAFE and new GFSI requirements on food fraud prevention and mitigation.

The new GFSI requirements require of recognized certification schemes such as FSSC 22000 to build in fraud prevention and mitigation requirements. FSSC 22000, PwC and Wageningen University, joined forces to organize pilot audits with five global food manufacturing companies and five FSSC 22000 licensed Certification Bodies. The purpose of this pilot was threefold:

1. Understand impact and efforts required as a result of the new GFSI food fraud prevention and mitigation requirements 2. Pilot the new GFSI food fraud prevention and mitigation requirements and collect input for a harmonized audit approach 3. Gain an understanding in the difficulties encountered and lessons learnt regarding using the Food Fraud Vulnerability Assessment (FFVA) tool